Ride the Lightning
by Czar Ryno
Summary: An ex-Cloud ninja is the desired commodity of a group of bad guys looking for the Jade of A Thousand Bolts. What happens when Naruto, Sakura, and Ino are sent to retrieve the Jade and take it back to its rightful place? What is so special about this ex-Cloud ninja anyway? Slight Self-Insert/SI.


_Drip. Drip._

The sound of water hitting the rocky cavern floor rings in my head. Apart from my unsteady breath and fast heartbeat, it's the only thing I can hear. But it rings loudest in this dank, wet, smelly cave. I realized though, that this place was my only chance for my escape. Nobody was going to be able to trace me in here, my scent was washed away by the heavy rain, and I think I'm out of range for even the best chakra sensors.

"HMPF." I clutch at my chest tightly and fall down on one knee.

'_My chakra,'_ I thought, _'I used too much fighting off those damn goons.'_

I have never in my entire life been pushed that far by someone in a fight. Then again, I guess I have never truly fought anybody before….

Because I always killed them before they could lay a hand on me.

This time, it was different though, as if they knew what I was capable of. Like they knew who I was and knew of whatever this stupid power that I have is.

"AHHH," I groan.

The strange markings that run down my chest begin to glow a bright yellow. The cave illuminates to reveal every jagged edge and crevice.

I clutch my chest even harder, struggling to breath. My body feels numb for a few seconds, before the light coming from my body begins to die down and my body regains feeling, and my breath steadies.

Slowly, I stand up and face the entrance. The cave was pretty straight and narrow, so despite how far away I am; I can still see the grey skies that indicate the clouds of the storm.

Of course, I knew they would still be there. I did summon those clouds. I brought the rain and I brought the lightning and the resounding thunderous booms that rattled the ground beneath them. I watched as those fools bodies dropped to the floor in an instant, their hearts stopped dead from the pure electric current that ran through them.

It is estimated that only 10% of people die from the lightning strikes themselves. Those people are usually hit directly in the spinal cord, brain, or heart and die immediately on impact. Because of that, I add an extra "precaution," you could call it. The human body may be able to withstand a split second strike, but could it survive a strike that lasts a couple seconds? Of course not. The body burns due to the extreme 54,000 degree heat.

There are many other things I can do with lightning and many other obstacles I have to go through and cover to make sure my hits are always fatal, but I digress.

I then decided I was going to be here the night and slowly laid down on the cold, hard, rocky cavern floor. I stared upwards, uncertain of how high the cavern was because of the deep darkness that this cave had, and relaxed my body and mind until I fell asleep.

"_Babe, are you kidding me? How many times are you going to fall asleep during a movie?"_

I opened my eyes, startled. I wasn't in a cave anymore, instead I was standing. In front of me was a projection of a beautiful girl, tanned skin, brown eyes, dark brown hair, but her face was scrunched in an irritated manner. She seemed so familiar…

"_Heheh. Well it's just so dark in here and these seats are really relaxing, plus I feel comfortable with you next to me….how can I not fall asleep, ya know?"_

On the projection, I noticed a hand quickly swipe across screen, it seems odd for a hand to be familiar, but that was too…

"_I swear, you are the weirdest person I have ever met, but you know that's why I love you right?"_

"_Is that another one of those compliments where you also make fun of me at the same time?"_

_The girl smacked the arm that was resting on the seat end._

"_Of course it was! You know me Ryan. I'm not one to be purely nice no matter what the situation! Always a little hint of evil." She then gave a rather seductive and playful wink._

"_You are a handful, October, you know that?"_

"October…" I said out loud to myself. This all felt…familiar, it was beginning to weird me out.

_Then the projection moved closer to her, the girl, October, closed her eyes and parted her lips, then the projection went black too, the only sounds that could be heard were the faint gasp of breath every now and again._

"_Ryan, do you know how much I love you?_

"_I love you so much that it hurts, and I wish I could love and be with you every second of my life, I know, I know, I have heard it all before."_

My eyes widened immediately. Then my head started hurting. I shut me eyes tightly. That was when through my closed eyes, I could see lights flash.

I forced myself to open my eyes once more and to my amazement, there wasn't just one projection, but thousands of them, surrounding me on all sides. All involving random people, but those same set of hands were in all of them.

Then, I looked closely at the different people. They all felt familiar to.

As if…

I knew them.

As if a ton of bricks had just hit me head, I crumbled to the ground, I grasped my head tightly. Rolling around, riving in pain. The projections that I saw with my eyes open were all visible in my mind. One by one they filled my head, and I was absorbing them all. I was confused, in pain, unsure of the situation. When it hit me…

"_Ryan, for the last time, would you not leave wrappers all over your room. I don't know how you are going to survive alone in college…"_

"_Ryan, just face it. You'll never be as good at this game as me. Shame that your little brother is beating the crap out of you isn't it?"_

"_Ryan, here is another life lesson for you. No! Listen! You know your dad gives the best life lessons."_

"_Ryan…I love you."_

The person behind the hands was me.

I was Ryan.

No.

I am Ryan. A 17 year old boy from Kansas with a love for soccer and a girlfriend that I met on a silly dating app for people under 18…and those hands that I saw on the projection,

Those are my hands.

I opened my eyes again, my head now painless. But this time it was dark again. No projections, no anything. I looked down and even my hands weren't there. Then a small white dot began to appear in front of me.

I may not have been able to see my hands, but I could feel them and I could move them. So I reached out to touch the dot, and it grew bigger. I retracted my hand, shocked at the movement the dot had made, but slowly went back to reach for it.

Then the white dot began to grow and it began to expand, eventually it grew around me and I found myself in a pure white room. I wouldn't call it a room though, more like a white box.

And then the room flickered.

And it changed back into that scene from earlier, the one with October and me. The way the room was formed though, it made me feel like I was there, watching the memory happen. I guess I could equate it to an outer body experience, something I always was curious of, but now that it was happening it was kind of creepy and I just wanted to wake up and get back to my life rather than relive it.

_We were exiting the theater and stopped just before the exit doors. Outside, it was raining in a tremendous downpour. It was borderline torrential rains, almost too dangerous to be in. _

_I turned to October, "Alright, I will go get the car and you stay here ok?"_

"_Alright babe, but be quick ok?"_

_She stood on her toes to kiss me and I gladly accepted the quick peck before holding my jacket tight to my body and running out into the rain._

_As soon as I stepped outside, I was pelted with harsh and large raindrops. I ran fast, trying to keep as dry as possible before I reached my car. _

_As I was running, I felt my keys drop out of my pocket and onto the ground. I bent over to pick them up when the hairs on my body all stood up. I flew backwards towards where I had exited the theater. My back throbbed in the most unbearable way, as if someone had sliced me with a machete._

"_RYANN!" _

Then, the projection stopped. I could see my hands again, but they weren't the same hands I was used too. My tears were hitting these hands, but they didn't feel like my own.

So, I was dead because I was struck by lightning, or in a coma. I assumed dead though. I was always a pessimist, always assuming the worst.

Suddenly, the projection came back up, frozen on a single frame. There was my body on the ground, singed with burns and lifeless. October was over me, crying. Something she did quite regularly on account of her emotional unstableness, but I was always there to comfort her when she needed it.

But I couldn't do that for her anymore.

And then, we started moving. But we didn't move normally. We were began taking back our movements. We were…rewinding?

I felt my head hurt again, but fought to keep my eyes open and watch what happened.

We moved backwards. She rewound back inside the theater and I rewound back to where I was picking up my keys.

The projection flashed a bright white light. Then sped up.

Right before my eyes, my life was rewinding. I think…

I got confused at what I was looking at, I didn't recognize some of the things I was seeing and the people that were there.

A memory appeared, it was me and October's first time. It was actually pretty damn sweet, I remember…

We…

Actually, I don't remember.

Then, it rewound to our first date the one where we went to…

'This is ridiculous!' I thought to myself. 'How am I forgetting such important things that I did with…,' my thoughts cut off there.

On the projection was a picture I had taken of her. Of October…

October…

Octob...

Oc…

'Wait, who is that girl?'

Then the picture faded away and my life kept rewinding.

Eventually, it got to the point where a little newborn baby was in the arms of a nurse crying. It's eyes had just opened for the first time. He was clearly asking to be held by his mom, but then the nurse froze. The projection froze, and then continued. The baby closed its eyes and then a bright white light filled the room again, but the light began to grow smaller and blackness began to dominate the room. Until the light faded away into a tiny dot…and all that was left was darkness.

My head felt empty. I couldn't see my hands again, but I could still feel them. I rubbed my head foolishly, trying to see if my head felt empty.

I closed my eyes.

I opened them this time to find a mirror in front of me and the room a pure white. No walls, no ceiling, just whiteness and the mirror in front of me.

I then looked at myself for a moment. I was shirtless with only a small strand of clothing covering my entire waist area. My brown hair was spiked up to my right, my ice blue eyes with a yellow tint around the edges of my pupil, and my chest covered in what markings that looked like veins, but were purple with a dirty yellow color blended in around them on my skin.

I turned to look at my back and saw a jagged purple line run across my back. My vertebrae also shown like the vein-like markings did on my chest, purple with a dirty yellow stemming from it.

I looked at myself. Emotionless. I was only worth the shitty life that I was clearly given. I had nobody and I lived for the same goal everyone else lives for, foolishly thinking that there is more to life than it.

Then the mirror shattered, and I closed my eyes.

I am Ryko Shokku.

I ride the lightning. _I am the lightning._

Then, I opened my eyes to see the ceiling of the cave. I sat up and felt the sweat that pooled around me in my sleep.

"Maybe it's a good thing I never remember my damn dreams."

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**A/N: Please review or favorite and follow so I know if I got this right, I am a little unsure about this, but I really like this idea.**

**Thanks for reading!**


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